Universal Disclaimer: The
following is informative if not definitive, largely based on
recollections
of a conversation with flutemaker George Opperman on October 8, 2000.Best
known for his piccolos and bass flutes, George Opperman (1918-2016) made his first
instruments before he ever even set foot in a flute shop. He
studied
flute performance very seriously but hadn't yet accumulated much
professional
experience when he went into the military for WW2. When he came
out
of the service, flute players were a dime a dozen in NYC, he didn't
double
on other instruments, so he had very limited opportunity to work.

Times were tough from 1946 to
1954.
He set up a studio and taught flute; he started doing instrument
repairs
and teaching other musicians how to fix their own horns. George
began
making his first piccolos without ever going through the apprenticeship
system -- after all, he couldn't afford to feed his family on what
Boston
makers paid their starting craftsmen.

With
two of the biggest jobbers in the industry backing him, Opperman left
his
original NYC shop in December of 1954 and moved to Elkhart to set up a
new business. This enterprise didn't work out, but he stayed and
took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about larger scale
instrument
production. He worked for Selmer, Gemeinhardt, and Armstrong.

George says that in 1955-58
Armstrong
had a very nice plant with the best working conditions he had
encountered.
There he worked with several members of the Moore family including a
kid
named Jack Moore, who was about 14 years his junior and later went on
to
make Armstrong's better instruments. But in the latter 1950's the
nature of the business was starting to change, along with the balance
between
quality and production. Competition pushed them to search for new
products, and attention turned to alto flutes.

When Opperman first arrived in
Elkhart
his advice was often requested. Armstrong had on hand alto flutes
made by Haynes and Rudall Carte, and they asked George his opinion on
which
flute to pattern after. He preferred the Rudall Carte, whose
smaller
bore gave its sound the nicer core and center. When Armstrong
ignored
his advice he became discouraged. He went home for lunch and
discussed
this with his wife. She knew he wanted to make his own
instruments,
so with her encouragement he went back to the shop that afternoon and
told
his foreman he would be leaving at the end of the week.

He opened his own shop, and
started
by making alto flutes with a mechanism of his own design. He
based
his dimensions on a Powell alto flute which the Boston Symphony was
using.
Powell and English makers used smaller bore tubing, so he used 1/32"
thick
1" outer diameter 60/40 brass alloy. He still has his original
prototype.

Visually
this flute has a solid, "made to be played" look to it. Elegance
takes a back seat to getting a reliable flute built with minimal
tooling,
which has a certain appeal of its own. Still looks in the
prototype
stage, posts attached to the body with fairly short straps (1" - 2")
serving
1 or 2 posts instead of straps running the length of the body.
(If
I had to scare off a mugger with a flute, this is the one I would use.)

Opperman gave some of these
altos
to a dealer in NYC, Leon Russianoff, Drucker's clarinet teacher.
One belongs to Glenn Miller's tenor player Al Klink (who also played
with
Goodman, Dorsey, and Armstrong). #121 is also one of these, fully
handmade (George didn't have any production alto tooling at the time)
around
1958 or 1959. The lathing marks are still visible on the soldered
toneholes. Due to demand he later "expanded" to larger diameter
tubing.
He recently worked on one of these, #171, which he changed from open to
closed G#.

George
made his first bass flute in 1963 using the same mechanism design he
came
up with for the alto flute. Hubert Laws has one of these, which
is
showcased on a CD in an arrangement of the Theme from Love Story.

Since I have a Haynes concert
flute
originally made for Frederick Wilkins, I asked Opperman if he knew him
from his New York days or the story behind the Wilkins Model
Artley.
Yes, George knew "Freddie Wilkins" and said the Artley Wilkins Model
was
indeed a copy of Freddie's Powell. At the time a flute teacher
commented
that now his students could pay for an Artley and play a Powell.
George said no, but they could "play on Partleys."

Opperman's favorite concert
flute
is a 3000 series plated Bonneville. He has taught at Indiana
University
South Bend and Notre Dame. One of his current projects is
designing
and making an Eb alto flute.

MODIFICATION:
The set screw between the back connectors is not original. This
central
section between the left- and right-hand keywork steels was originally
spring-loaded. I speculate that at some point an unsuspecting
technician
unfamiliar with the mechanism took the flute apart, and the
spring-loaded
bearings shot across the shop, never to be seen again. He
therefore
permanently mounted a bearing at one end, trimmed the other end of the
tubing back, tapped threads into the key shoulder, and mounted a
threaded
bearing that could be snugged up once the back connector was in
place.
He soldered on a set screw receiver to keep the bearing from
turning.
Not as elegant as the original design, but at least it works!